Elizabeth River Tunnels prepares for winter weather

This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

Elizabeth River Tunnels prepares for winter weather

Portsmouth, Va. – Elizabeth River Tunnels crews are prepared for potential winter weather conditions expected over the next 12 hours and have additional staff and equipment on standby to help keep the Downtown and Midtown tunnels and associated roadways safe for motorists.

Motorists should be alert for tandem plowing operations on mainline roads operated by Elizabeth River Crossings (ERC). Tandem plowing is when two or more snowplows work together to clear a roadway faster. As always, when approaching our plows, give them plenty of room to work and never try to maneuver between two plows working in a tandem. The safest place on the road to be is a few hundred feet behind a plow.

ERC is responsible for incident response, snow removal, operations, and maintenance of the Elizabeth River Tunnels and approximately 51 lane miles of associated roadways (illustrated above).

While ERC provides incident response and Safety Service Patrols for the West Norfolk and Berkley bridges, operations and maintenance responsibilities for both bridges remain under Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) jurisdiction.